#visual metaphors

[the-crooked-library]

regarding Dune Part 2: i am obsessed with its consistent visual theme of self-destruction. the shot of paul surrounded by his new followers seems triumphant - until the viewer remembers that each crysknife is made from a tooth of shai-hulud, and paul is standing in a circle of them, in the allegorical mouth of the worm. he orders a missile strike, and the viewer sees them fly directly through his head. every victory for the prophecy is a blow to paul himself; he's killing himself with every step he takes towards his destiny, and we know that already, and the film is screaming it, but it's a hell of a thing to watch it happen, isn't it?..

[thewisecheerio]

Visual Metaphors of Elden Ring

Rife with environmental storytelling, a major portion of Elden Ring's story is told through visual metaphor. Here are some of my favorites:

Radagon's body is crumbling apart when we finally fight Marika/Radagon in the final battle. I read this as the old Order falling apart and crumbling to dust, making way for the Tarnished's new regime.

To reach St. Trina, embodiment of Sleep, you literally have to fall and fall and fall as if you are falling into a deep slumber. The animation doesn't have any of the typical windy action lines denoting drag from air resistance, which makes me think this is an almost gentle fall, the way that sleep is often something whose embrace you gently fall into.

GIF made from this excellent video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrwPJ3Zkx8E

When battling Messmer, he will sometimes drag his spear along the ground before attacking. In the real world, this would be an objectively stupid thing to do (other than for intimidation), as it would dull your weapon.

Interestingly, this is one of the few attacks that DOESN'T coat the spear in actual fire, which seems like an outlier at first given his theming. However, his spear sort of looks like a matchstick. So I think this is meant to be read as if he's striking a match. Because of the matchstick metaphor, I think the attack can still be read as fire-themed even without fire present, and that's pretty fun.

GIF made from this excellent video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzKPl1EZs7Q

Miquella's cocoon is perfect imagery to denote transformation, and it takes a few forms. We see his transformation between Miquella and St. Trina (until he casts her off, anyway), his transformation from his cursed forever-young body to the adult body we see in his fight, and finally his transformation from demigod to god. The cocoon is also atop a pelvic bone, giving the further reading of not just transformation, but rebirth—something appropriate to the latter two transformations.

The Gate of Divinity being made up of literal bodies is an excellent metaphor for taking power. One does not rise above others without sacrifice, and often sacrifice that involves crushing others beneath your feet. To become a god, you must step across the bodies you piled up along the way. It also speaks to the hair thin line between violence often being necessary for progress, and violence being wielded for selfish ambition alone.

[haven-lf]

When a character dies in Arcane, the light literally leaves their eyes.

It seems Jinx has finally let Powder die.

[thewandererh]

artemis reached for the sun

like hatred to heaven

and fell deeper still into hell

claws tearing at the last semblance of sky before life went dark

the new moon now his eyes

…

acts like a sequel to this?

listened to the entire The Gods We Can Touch album for this one, belting out the heavenly lyrics at midnight while drawing. what a night. i love you AURORA.this might be what i call a “fake” lineless piece? i removed the outline after i paint-bucketed everything. i love this pose sm <33. there’s some metaphors about the visibility of the blue on HeaRT vs MiND, how HeaRT’s wings cause slight eyetrain on the bluer background, and the complexity of MiND’s pose. i love visual metaphorical storytelling…

realized i said “i love” a lot lmao. here’s the original sketch ^_^!

[zombie-boygrrl]

Anya

He is me, I am him. [I headcanon him as a transman because I can do what I want, and we share far too much in common.]

[dmorganillustration]

Another little doodle

[aviruserothanatoguru]

Illustration for the album Revoltality, Band GRACE DISGRACED. Track: The Culture of Pain Music | Grace Disgraced

[samasmith23]

There's something simultaneously tragic yet humorous about the framing of this scene where Poison Ivy makes love with one of her co-workers from an Amazon packaging facility.

I think it's due to the combination of G. Willow Wilson's tragically beautiful narration of Ivy lamenting in her letters that she was thinking of Harley Quinn the entire time, as well as Marcio Takara’s stacked panel layout of a vision of Harley sitting in a chair watching the silhouettes of Ivy and her co-worker having sex (maintaining the exact same posture & expression in all 4 panels on the page, while humorously waving to the audience in the 3rd panel).

In essence, the Harley illusion serves metaphorical representation of Poison Ivy's feelings of regret over having broken up with Harley prior to the start of Wilson's run.

From Poison Ivy (2022) #4 by G. Willow Wilson & Marcio Takara.

[agentrouka-blog]

Do you think there's a possibility that Val's "dark honey" hair color was a mistake on George's part?

No.

Only the hair color? Sure, a case could be made.

But hair color and eye color both, in a scene that existed solely to link her visually belonging to Jon's soul animal Ghost and make Jon think the phrase "a sight so lovely"? A scene that serves no immediate purpose other than set up his own self-deception about her (after he had defended her from other people's misconceptions all this time, no less)? Over a character that is primarily described in context of her looks, making them very familiar to GRRM?

He describes her eyes as grey and her hair as "honey-blond" together on two other occasions, always in scenes where Jon sees her clearly for who she is. But only here where her eyes change color does her hair also turn dark-honey-no-blond (which, google the color always tends dark red) and to proclaim it an accident in the context of the scene where Jon loses sight of who she is seems very arbitrary.

[brainwormcity]

That's it. That's the show.

[theknucklehead]

Inside Out movies in a nutshell:

[ricihh]

what if you were a fork and i were a cake, and we committed cannibalism?

cakeverse au yuri cannibalism!!! PIPERLETTE FOR THE WIN 🗣‼‼‼

Rating: M

Fandom: Brawl Stars

Relationship: Colette/Piper

Main Tags: Cakeverse, Consensual (& Erotic) Cannibalism, Blood, Dessert & Sweets, Metaphors, Worship, Dom/sub Undertones, Obsessive Behavior, Implied Sexual Content, Established Relationship

Warnings: Cannibalism is the warning itself so proceed with caution

Summary: Or, Colette eats Piper's thigh as if it were a cake (it tastes like one).

[stone-cold-groove]

Corporate identities, logos, icons, emblems, symbols and insignia.

[returnerfop]

“You’d stick with a boiling pot just because you remember how cold it used to be” -My version of Timmy Turner, to my version of Trixie Tang, about her unwillingness to ditch her sucky childhood friends

[thewandererh]

humble iambic pentameter storyboard sketches done last night :]